Team Turner Racing Tackles Merrittville

CAISTOR CENTRE, Ont. – June 27, 2017 – Team Turner Racing was back in action this weekend taking on the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints at Merrittville Speedway in 360 Sprint Car competition on Saturday night.

It was the team’s only race of the week after Friday’s race at Ohsweken Speedway was rained out.

The night started with time trials, where Cory Turner led the way in his KT Tobacco/Silo Wireless No.97 with a fourth-place effort in the first group. The four-car invert put him on the pole for his heat.

“We checked out in the heat race and were really good,” Cory said. “I won by almost a straightaway.”

Ryan Turner earned a fifth-place finish in his heat aboard the Ace’s Bar and Grill No.91, which put him the Cobra Coaches Dash with a chance to earn the 13th starting spot.

“We started third in the Dash and ran second,” Ryan said. “We were fast in the Dash and I was pretty happy with the car.”

Jamie Turner was seventh in his heat and had to go through the B-Main. He won the Last Chance Qualifier to transfer into the 25-lap main event.

“I started at the back of the heat because I didn’t time trial well,” Jamie said. “It was just the way time trials went. I moved up a little bit in the heat. In the B, I was surprised the track was as good as was. We were ripping around there pretty good.”

Come Feature time, Cory redrew the third starting position for the main event while Ryan started 14th and Jamie lined-up in 19th.

“I started third and I was okay. I stayed in front of Westbrook for a few laps and then he got by me and ran the leaders down,” Cory said. “I was as far back as eighth or ninth and it was almost like the bleeder kicked in and it let some air out of the right rear and I started driving by guys again.”

Cory raced his way back to sixth, but a late slide job from Coleman Gulick pushed him back to the seventh spot. He finished in that spot to earn his eighth top-10 finish of the season in 10 starts.

“I felt like I just needed to be a little tighter in the centre of the corner and I think we would have been good,” Cory explained. “Overall, I was pretty happy.”

Ryan had arguably the best car of the three TTR team members. He quickly raced forward to tenth, but then had problems with his left-front suspension and was forced to retire.

“We made some adjustments on the car after the Dash and we might have forgot to put a left-front shock back on,” Ryan explained. “It was on, but it wasn’t fully on. Even with it off, I got up to 10th from 14th, but as I started to use the brakes more, the left-front started bouncing so I started to fall back and eventually pulled off.”

While Ryan would have liked to continue the run and earn a top-10, he was still impressed with the speed he found at his former home track.

“I’m glad it happened in a non-points race, one where we were there for fun so we can learn from it and get better,” Ryan said. “It’s definitely not a disappointing night because we didn’t wreck anything. I just wish we could have shown everybody what we had.”

Previous experience as regulars at Merrittville in the Street Stock and Sportsman divisions certainly pays off for Cory and Ryan when they return to the Thorold, Ont. track in their Sprint Cars. Jamie also has plenty of laps there as a former Modified pilot.

“I feel like a lot of the outsiders struggle with finding the line out of turn four, so having so many laps around there in a Street Stock and a Sportsman helps me get around the track a bit better than them,” Ryan explained. “I’m just a little more comfortable.”

Jamie maintained his running position for the duration of the race and finished 19th against a talented ESS field.

“I missed the setup a little bit,” Jamie said. “I just didn’t quite make the right adjustments for the A, but overall I was pretty happy with the car.”

The night, however, was a good one for the entire Team Turner Racing group. Each trip to Merrittville means seeing old friends and former competitors from the team’s days of weekly competition there.

“We always seem to spend half our night when we’re at Merrittville seeing a lot of the people that I’ve grown up with and spent a lot of nights at the racetrack with,” Jamie explained. “We have a lot of fun when we go there.”

The entire TTR team will be back in action on Friday, June 30 at Ohsweken Speedway. At least two team members, Cory and Ryan, are likely to compete on Saturday as well, but are unsure which race they will attend. With several options within a reasonable distance, the team’s choice will in part be weather dependent. For the latest schedule updates on Team Turner Racing, follow them on Facebook and on Twitter.

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